Madrid’s Wildfire Heroes Down Tools: Indefinite Strike Returns As Pay Row Ignites

Madrid’s forest-fire brigades will resume an open-ended onslaught connected Monday August 25, saying years of short-term contracts, stiff wages and unsafe conditions person pushed them to nan brink.

Unions want patient guarantees up of a three-way gathering connected Thursday 28 betwixt nan location government, authorities contractor Tragsa and workforce reps.

Why Madrid’s wood firefighters are striking again

The walkout was first called July 15, past paused for 10 days arsenic fires raged crossed Spain. With small activity since, crews opportunity they’ve had to restart action. Minimum screen of 80 per cent will stay to protect nan public.

Workers picture a work held together by seasonal hires and outdated rules. Around 500 specialists (about 350 off-season) unit nan Comunidad de Madrid’s wood units but are employed by Tragsa, a state-owned patient nether Spain’s SEPI holding. Their cardinal complaints are familiar:

• Pay stiff since 2010, pinch nary nickname for toxicity, threat and hardship connected nan occurrence line.
• Precarious rostering, pinch astir 40 per cent of nan workforce connected four-month contracts.
• Dilapidated bases and instrumentality “left to property for 2 decades”, according to nan committee.
• A telephone to use Law 5/2024 (passed 8 November 2024) successful Madrid and to update a assemblage statement past revised successful 2008.

“We’ll support striking indefinitely until location are clear, written guarantees,” nan useful committee – made up of UGT, Firet and CGT – told reporters, noting Tragsa and nan Treasury grounded to be an earlier gathering invitation connected 18 August.

What Madrid and Tragsa are offering – and why unions opportunity it’s not enough

After talks connected Friday 22, nan region said it would renew Tragsa’s instruction for prevention, surveillance and support to nan Madrid Fire Service beyond its December expiry. A caller assignment, owed to statesman successful 2026, would assistance yearly backing by €4 cardinal to much than €32 million, and – crucially for workers – widen contracts to 12 months a year.

The location Environment section besides floated a ineligible shortcut: let unit to adhere to Tragsa’s nationalist BRIF corporate statement (recently published successful Spain’s Official Gazette) that covers reinforcement brigades moving for nan Ecological Transition Ministry. Officials reason it’s ‘perfectly legal’ if nan institution and worker reps motion off, and would standardise conditions for group performing nan aforesaid jobs.

Union leaders rejected nan thought retired of hand. ‘Not an option,’ they said, insisting nan BRIF model doesn’t lucifer Madrid’s service, and informing it would adhd ineligible uncertainty, not region it.

There’s besides a tangle complete who tin discuss what. Tragsa says it isn’t empowered to rewrite Madrid’s sector-level prevention and wildfire agreement, which governs these crews. The region counters that it can’t bargain a assemblage woody either, arsenic nan firefighters are Tragsa employees, not location civilian servants. A Labour Directorate sentiment shared by nan authorities notes Tragsa could discuss its ain institution agreement, but not nan broader sectoral one. In short: each broadside points to nan other, while workers wait.

What happens next: nan Thursday showdown – and what it intends connected nan ground

All eyes now move to Thursday 28, erstwhile Tragsa, nan location authorities and nan committee are owed backmost astatine nan table. Firefighters want a road-map successful writing: year-round contracts starting earlier 2026, a salary update that bakes successful consequence and hardship supplements, and finance to bring bases and kit up to scratch. Without that, they say, nan onslaught continues.

For residents, nan return to action shouldn’t mean quiet watchtowers. Essential screen remains precocious and afloat master units from nan Madrid Fire Service will proceed to lead wildfire responses. But national sources pass prolonged unrest risks hollowing retired acquisition up of autumn upwind events and nan early-spring pain window.

The authorities are heating up too. Regional officials opportunity their package has earned plaudits from respective nationalist ministers and stresses that bringing unit nether nan nationalist Tragsa statement would velocity improvements. Unions reply that Madrid’s terrain and workload are unsocial and merit a bespoke fix, not a copy-and-paste.

What’s not successful conflict is nan guidance of travel. Climate-driven seasons are longer, hotter and much erratic; nan aforesaid crews who trim firebreaks successful August are now being asked to clear large wind harm and guidelines by for flash-flood rescues successful winter. That’s why nan workforce says nan exemplary of short contracts and stiff salary belongs to nan past.

Unless Thursday delivers patient commitments — 12-month jobs, updated pay, safer bases – Madrid’s wildfire specialists will support nan unit on. As 1 elder firefighter put it: “We can’t conflict 21st-century fires connected 20th-century contracts.”

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